[ Published on: October 03, 2020 21:09 IST ]
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli silenced his critics in style as he scored a sparkling 72 not out to steer his team to an eight-wicket in the 15th match of the IPL 2020 in Abu Dhabi
The win also propelled RCB to the top of the league points table after three wins from four games.
Chasing a 155-run target, Shreyas Gopal drew the first blood for RR after he trapped opener Aaron Finch (8) in the third over with just 25 runs on board.
RR's joy was, however, short lived as Padikkal, who has been in fine form with the bat, continued his brilliant run. The youngster came with a 45-ball 63 run knock.
Both batsmen's sensible act in the middle helped RCB touch the 50-run mark in the initial six overs and they added another 27 runs in the next four overs to take the score to 77/1 in 10 overs. Kohli smashed Riyan Parag for a six over deep extra cover in the 13th over as RCB crossed the 100-run mark.
The fall of Padikkal hardly affected RCB's run-chase as Kohli, who finally regained his touch, continued with his fluent shots and in the process also completed 5,500 runs in the league. The run-machine was joined by AB de Villers, who remained unbeaten on 12 off 10 balls, and the pair easily overhauled the target with five balls to spare.
Opting to bat on winning the toss, RR's top order once again failed to give a solid start as it lost skipper Steve Smith (5), Jos Buttler(22) and Sanju Samson (4) within the first five overs with just 31 runs on the scorecard.
After the top order collapse, Lomror, featuring in his first match in the tournament, scored valiant 39-ball 47, his knock including a boundary and three sixes.
Rahul Tewatia, RR's find of the tournament, and Jofra Archer then added 40 runs in the final 20 deliveries as their side managed to reach a respectable total of 154/6 in their allotted 20 overs. While Tewatia chipped in with a 12-ball 24 not out, Archer contributed with 10-ball unbeaten 16 runs.
For RCB, Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 3/24 from four overs
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